January 9, 2009

5. Obi-Wan Kenobi from "Star Wars" (Sir Alec Guinness) - His name seems more Japanese than anything else, but "don't tell me he's not Jewish," a friend says confidently. Sir Alec Guinness's rabbi-like Jedi talk of a Force that runs through us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together is proof.

[This] may be among the most poorly-constructed lists I've ever seen, a BFTJ compendium focusing on characters that are just brutally bad stereotypes (Judd Hirsch in Independence Day), in bad movies (Melanie Griffith in A Stranger Among Us), or who aren't even Jewish at all (Obi-Wan Kenobi and Gov. William J. Lepetomane, and just because the Native American chief spoke some Yiddish doesn't make him Jewish -- see Powell, Colin.)

From the Vanity Fair article which is partly about the Jewishness of "The Graduate."

Said writer Buck Henry: “Jews from New York came to the Land of Plenty, and within one generation the Malibu sand had gotten into their genes and turned them into tall, Nordic powerhouses. Walking surfboards. We were thinking about how these Nordic people have Dustin as a son, and it’s got to be a genetic throwback to some previous generation.”

It's my suggestions, and I'll defend it: Yentl's a hell of a lot better than the Judd Hirsch character in Independence Day, a stereotype so bad I practically recall him lending money at usurious rates while Will Smith was saving the planet.

"When he had decided to make The Graduate three and a half years earlier, [Mike] Nichols thought he knew exactly what his satirical targets were. ''I said some fairly pretentious things about capitalism and material objects, about the boy drowning in material things and saving himself in the only possible way, which was through madness,'' he recalls. But the deeper he got into the shoot and the more intensely he pushed [Dustin] Hoffman past what the actor thought he could withstand, the more Nichols realized that something painful and personal was at stake, and always had been, in his attraction to the story. ''My unconscious was making this movie,'' he says. ''It took me years before I got what I had been doing all along — that I had been turning Benjamin into a Jew. I didn't get it until I saw this hilarious issue of MAD magazine after the movie came out, in which the caricature of Dustin says to the caricature of Elizabeth Wilson, 'Mom, how come I'm Jewish and you and Dad aren't?' And I asked myself the same question, and the answer was fairly embarrassing and fairly obvious.''

"Nichols — the immigrant, the observer, the displaced boy — finally understood why it had taken him years to settle on an actor to play Benjamin. ''Without any knowledge of what I was doing,'' he said, ''I had found myself in this story.'' And in Hoffman, he had found an on-screen alter ego — someone he could admonish for his failings, challenge to dig deeper, punish for his weaknesses, praise to bolster his confidence, and exhort to prove every day that he was the right man for the role."

Now that I clicked through to Throwing Things I see Adam beat to me the Moses reference.

Well how about Paul Newman playing Ari Ben Canaan in Exodus.

I agree with Adam's dismissal of Judd Hirsch in Independence Day. Not only was it a ridiculous caricature -- a kind of straight non-parodic version of Mel Brook's Miracle Max, it's not even Hirsch's best Jewish character. That would be Dr. Berger in Ordinary People.

Striesand - Fanny Brice/ Funny Girl, Katie Morosky/The Way We Were The Diary of Anne Frank

Jweish HumorJewish Movies Gonif with the Wind - a thief tries to acquire ownership of Tara through a forged deed. The Putzman Rings Twice - a mohel murder mystery Schnorer Rae - a freeloader tries to get in on the union movement Balaboosta Cockburn - John Wayne's wife memorizes Grossinger cookbook The Good, the Chabbad, and the Ugly - a kosher noodle western Moby Dreck - Captain Ahab harpoons the wrong end of the whale The Cincinnati Yid - Steve McQueen uses some of his poker winnings to start a reform congregation Litvak Big Man - Dustin Hoffman learns that his parents are an American Indian and a Lithuanian immigrant Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kibbitzer - Paul Newman and Robert Redford do some standup shtick while they rob their victims Bridge over the River Kvetch - the extras complain that whistling the theme song dries out their mouth and hurts their lips The Creature from the Black Latke - an overdone potato pancake turns into a monster Mamza Poppins - a talented nanny has questions about her birth legitimacy The Matzo Candidate - Frank Sinatra is brainwashed into thinking it's always Passover Mister Schnapps Goes to Washington - Jimmy Stewart thinks he's still filming Harvey Driedls of the Lost Ark - Harrison Ford plays Chanukah games Aleph Doesn't Live Here Anymore - neither the waitress nor the old Hebrew school can be found Borscht-time for Bonzo - Ronald Regan tries to train an Ashkenazi monkey Singing in the Ch'rain - Gene Kelly gets horseradish on his umbrella

"Superman's Moses-like origin and his Midwestern WASP-ish (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) persona are widely regarded as a symbol of Jewish assimilation. Children of immigrant Jews, Siegel and Shuster were not unlike many in their generation in their desire to fit in to the general goyim population."

Well, then the question is what movies make Jesus an interesting character -- or, for that matter, any of the other disciples. JCS? I am not a fan of Mel Gibson's film, for many of the same reasons I don't like the Hirsch role.

And I still haven't seen The Pianist. I've also been led to believe that Defiance will lead to a few additions to this list.

"Well, then the question is what movies make Jesus an interesting character -- or, for that matter, any of the other disciples. JCS? I am not a fan of Mel Gibson's film, for many of the same reasons I don't like the Hirsch role"

Prior to The Godfather, I always thought that the Italians depicted on screen lacked authenticity. Only many years later did I realize that Italian was the code way of depicting Jews. For example, the Ali McGraw character in Love Story was actually Jewish. I'm sure tha why she later got the part of Richard Benjamin's girlfriend in Portnoy's Complaint.....In Love With a Proper Stranger, Natalie Wood did a double reverse spin. She was a Jewish girl playing an Italian who was used as the screenwriter's stand-in identity for a Jewish girl.